Aye yi yi!

Well, first off - I feel like I need to vent my frustration with this week's assignment... I've spent a total of four hours in computer labs during this past week and still have yet to complete the assignment. Hopefully something will click tomorrow morning when I go for my third and final attempt before class... I don't know why I couldn't do it. The first time I tried to begin with three pages and then create a CSS but somehow that didn't link properly... today I began with creating a style sheet - quite possibly my most productive hour - but time was cut short because of a meeting I needed to attend. I've got my fingers crossed that tomorrow is the day.

Like Lindsay wrote in her post, today in a meeting (actually, the meeting that had me leaving the computer lab) we discussed how we could really benefit from having a conference website for this event we are planning. We are hoping to even learn how to create an online form that would generate e-mails to us so that individuals can register for conferences on our website - pretty nifty, huh? We were thinking we would include directions to nyu, images of buildings people would want to look out for, and a schedule of the conference day, etc. Linds and I weren't 100% sure group work was allowed, but we'll see what happens.

Ah, the readings - well if it isn't another Friday night and here I am reading about KM systems and what not. Frankly, I wasn't completely clear on what I was reading... got the words, not a full understanding of the document. I tried to pay special attention to the tables and figures in order to get a better understanding of the difference in systems that the literature was trying to describe, but still confused, so I'm looking forward to some clarifications tomorrow. The things I did pick up? Instructional interaction design and strategies in comparison to instructional informational design. While I think interactive education is beneficial (ie. getting individuals involved by ) in the case of a website, too much clicking can get redundant and annoying. I think that information design offers people a chance to look at all the information they are seeking at once and can go from there as to how much more information they want to peruse, as opposed to having to click on 10 links to get to what they really are seeking - did I get this concept correct? I'd like to think so. The other thing I noticed was the need for constant and consistant evaluation of such design systems and strategies. Without this there is no way of knowing whether or not the user is benefiting from what is being done and whether needs of the changing (internet) 'world' are being met.

And finally - the Collins article! Ah, something I do get! Collins brought up many points which I have thought about on a frequent basis. As a child I used to get criticized for memorizing facts as opposed to understanding them and I believe that this is trend that I developed into my ways of learning - which up until now, while it has worked, has not always been the most beneficial. Collins article mainly focused on different ways in which people learn and ways of communicating information in order to make the most out of what information we our outputting and the spaces and tools which we utilize. In reading this piece I thought a lot about how I have been using the cheat sheets in order to do the assignments and I questioned whether or not this was following my trend of memorizing vs. understanding in addition to pin point what style of learning I was using (interactive, passive, or incidental). I came to the conclusion that the way in which the class is taught falls into all three categories at different times. I also thought about how different learning is when one is in k-12 to being in institutions of higher education and tried to apply the literature regarding structured vs. exploratory learning (which we encounter much more at an older age, also stated in the literature). In teaching methods I thought about which methods I felt that I have benefited from most and what I have encountered most and I felt that scaffolding and coaching were both methods I had relied on, and had experienced both the postive and negative of such aspects. Lastly, I considered the method of articulation and found that this teaching approach faces negatives similar to those of experimental learning in that articulation students may bring students to (as Collins says) "learn to talk a good game without really understanding. I felt this way because I have come to believe through my experimental learning that I am capable of getting a really good grasp of one subject in some regards and can discuss them in class, I become open to the idea that I may know one thing too well, and not much abut other things (breadth vs. depth) and that there may be many questions left unanswered and lessons left unlearned.